The Samsung Digimax Pro 815 is an 8 megapixel SLR-like digital camera featuring 15x optical zoom (28-420 mm equivalent), a huge 3.5″ LCD screen and 2.5 frames per second fast shooting mode. The camera is powered by Lithium ion battery and available from August 2005 with the price of $849.

PCMag have recently reviewed the Samsung Digimax Pro 815. They rate the camera 2.5 out of 5 and write;“In my lab tests, I found the camera had less noise than our Editors’ Choice superzoom, the Panasonic Lumix FZ30. Color was quite accurate and vivid. But I did see some significant fringing. Overall, I thought the exposure was decent, although I noticed my daylight shot had slightly blown-out highlights and my flash shot was slightly underexposed. Still, my flash test shot revealed a decent, even flash. “

PCWorld have recently reviewed the Samsung Digimax Pro 815. They rate the camera 83 out of 100 and write;“In our image quality tests, the Pro815 rated Very Good. At its default settings, the camera didn’t fare well in the distortion and noise tests, but it achieved better scores for shots taken under normal everyday conditions. The Pro815 responded nicely in tests where we adjusted its manual settings to achieve optimum quality–confirming that this camera is best suited for advanced photographers. In informal testing, I found it easy to overexpose my shots in bright sunlight. I also noticed some sharpening artifacts, particularly halos around strongly contrasting edges. Results improved somewhat when I adjusted the exposure compensation and set the sharpness to “soft.” “

TrustedReviews have recently reviewed the Samsung Digimax Pro 815. They rate the camera 9 out of 10 and write;“The resulting picture is outstanding. The excellent lens provides superior sharpness and detail with minimal distortion even at wide angle, and the CCD and imaging system makes the most of it. Colour rendition is nice and neutral, exposure is superb and image noise is kept to an acceptable minimum even at the maximum 400 ISO…The Samsung Pro815 is a truly superb camera, with superior build quality, outstanding design, a great range of versatile, creative and in some cases unique features, very good performance and outstanding picture quality. The only real let-down is the sluggish autofocus, but other than that it’s a serious alternative to a digital SLR. “

CNET have recently reviewed the Samsung Digimax Pro 815. They rate the camera 5.8 out of 10 and write;“Noise is probably the Pro 815′s biggest liability. Even at ISO 50, there is noticeable noise which looks akin to what you might find at ISO 200 on cleaner cameras. At ISO 100, it becomes only more noticeable, though images are still usable. At ISO 200, noise became much worse, obscuring finer details, though images are still passable when printed on paper as large as letter size. At ISO 400, noise was so rampant that images were nearly unusable. Given that many cameras now yield acceptable images at as high as ISO 800–and sometimes higher–it’s bad enough that the Pro 815′s sensitivity extends only to ISO 400 and it’s highly problematic that the camera has such high noise at ISO 200 and ISO 400.”

PhotographyReview reviewed the Samsung Digimax Pro 815 and wrote;“Once I mastered it, I was able to give the Samsung Pro815 a hearty thumbs-up. I love the big, sharp, telephoto zoom lens and the huge rear-panel LCD. The Pro815 provides many of the tools I require in an all-in-one, super-zoom digital camera: easy exposure compensation access, a live histogram, quick playback access, and reasonably quick start-up response. The things it’s missing – optical image stabilization, noise-free performance, histogram for picture review, quick auto focus response, and minimal shutter lag – bother me, but aren’t necessarily deal-killers for a sub-$1000 digital camera. Once I developed workarounds for the Pro815′s missing features and quirks, I was able to use the big telephoto to for action shots, candid portraits, and macro photos”

Shutterbug reviewed the Samsung Digimax Pro 815 and wrote;“When capturing JPEG files, the Digimax Pro815 is responsive. Its start up and shot-to-shot speeds are 1 second and 1.3 seconds respectively and shutter lag is .05 seconds. The Pro815 uses a passive AF sensor to produce a fast AF speed of less than 1 second.Single images can be captured at up to 5MB (3072×2304 pixels) and saved in raw or TIFF formats, although write time to the CompactFlash card is considerably longer with these files. Even when using a blazing fast 133x (with Write Acceleration) Lexar Professional 2GB card, the fastest raw capture took 12 seconds. TIFFs took longer. When the camera indicates it is “processing” the image nothing else happens, so you gotta wait.”

Samsung Camera has announced that the company will release the world’s longest(15X) optical zoom 8 megapixel high-end digital camera(model name: Pro815), targeting enthusiast photographers, later this year. The Pro815, offers unrivalled features and performance and is beyond comparison to other cameras in the same class. This marks the pinnacle of Samsung Camera’s product range for 2005.